My birthday cake had a keyboard on it...

Even the front of the club was a giant keyboard...

I installed my band sound system in the club and hired an excellent DJ. Because the legal drinking age was 19 at the time, most of the patrons were young which gave the room a lot of energy. Things were going well. In 1985 and 1986 I was so involved in the day-to-day operation of the club, I could not compose as much as I wanted to. The travel time alone, to and from the club twice a day, was nearly two hours. We were open 7 days a week and it was a time consuming operation that left me pretty tired by the end of the 15 hour days.

In the summer of 1987 I met a guitarist who was also an excellent vocalist and a good customer. (He wasn't a heavy drinker, he just stopped in often.) I told him that I was interested in having live entertainment in the room on Friday and Saturday nights and could provide the band with a good house sound system and many other essentials they would need to perform. He liked the idea. Over the next several weeks he would stop by and update me on his search for musicians. By fall he had found a bass player and drummer who were also good vocalists but was having trouble finding a keyboard player who could sing. He finally asked me if I would do it. I was not sure I could operate the club and be in the house band too, but I agreed to join anyway. Business had not been going well in the last several months. The legal drinking age was raised nationwide to 21 and that hurt the club tremendously. My thought was that if I were in the band, we could draw more patrons that were my age and that would help business. My club needed the proverbial "shot in the arm" and my hope was that the band would be that boost.